#their name's ren and i like them norm

[necra-loid]

not good enough for the art blog so here's the SMALLEST doodle of my operator lol

[howi99]

Project ARC remake 14

Ozpin: So, how was his first day?

Glynda: *sigh* He didn't want to hurt his adversary and dodged for the entire fight. His aura control is perfect but...

Ozpin: *sigh* No sign of his aura coming back?

Glynda: ... His physical wounds are healing. For now, that's what matters most...

Qrow: *sitting next to her* Amber is still recovering at the hospital, once she wakes up, we will finally know who attacked them. Maybe that could give us a clue on how to fix- i mean, how to heal him?

Glynda: *sigh* i hope so... *Looking at her scroll* Beside that, he seems to be adjusting correctly to his team. *Looking back at Ozpin* Him being partnered up with Mss Schnee wasn't just a hazard, was it?

Ozpin: In all honesty? It was. I know how the SDC and the Project ARC are both linked, but believe me when i said giving him more visibility wasn't my intention. I personally would prefer if James didn't know about Jaune. At least, not until the festival.

Qrow : I have to say, giving him Arc as his last name wasn't really the best idea to hide him from Atlas.

Glynda: *sigh* He only accepted this one... And mine, though that would have been an even worse giveaway... *Small smile* I'm just happy he thought of our real name first.

Qrow: It does mean that deep down, he's still your brother.

________

Nora: *looking at Jaune from afar* Hey Ru, don't you think Jaune looks a lot like Professor Goodwitch?

Ruby: *eating cookies* Mh?

Nora: Like, beside the hair color, they kinda have the same... I guess aura? And the way she acted with him-

Yang: What, you think they are secretly siblings? Why would they hide it?

Blake: *looking up from her book* ... Maybe it's not a choice? Or maybe we are reading in too deep? Besides, it's not really what's the weirdest about him.

Yang: Oh oh~ already sizing him up are ya?

Blake: *slightly Blushing* Not in that sense! I meant his Aura. And not only that, but the way he speaks.

Ruby: *gulping down the cookies* Ah~. Couldn't that just be him being a bit... Uh... *Look at Nora*

Nora: ... What?

Ruby: N-nothing!

Nora: You meant autistic?

Ruby: D-didn't want to assume!

Nora: *shrug* It's fine, but i don't have it. Or at least, i never got a diagnostic. *Point to Ren* He does.

Yang: But the way you act-

Nora: I've been living in the street for as long as i can remember. Social norm aren't really something i could learn.

Yang: Oh shit, i'm so sorry, i-

Nora: *shrug* Eh, not the first gal to make that mistake. And certainly not the last.

Ruby: S-so, what do you think for Jaune?

Nora: I don't think it's that.

Blake: Really?

Nora: He still understands most social queues and even apologized for his actions during the match. I don't really want to assume anything, but... It's more like he is broken.

Yang: What? Like mind break like in the book Blake's reading?

Blake: Hey!

Nora: No, more like... A part of him is missing? He did say he lost his memory, so it might be that.

Ruby: *sigh* i hope he gets better...

___________

Jaune: *looking at the dino nuggies in his plate* ... What are those?

Pyrrha: *awkwardly laughing* I uh... Didn't know what you'd like so i just took the first thing that grabbed my attention. Eh eh...

Jaune: ... (Glynda did tell me i should eat even though i do not require it. Something about fitting in and being able to use the energy to better heal). *Look at the t-rex looking one* I guess i can try them.

Ren: *drinking tea with Weiss* If you want, i could try making some food i learned to make during my travel?

Jaune: That would be nice.

Weiss: *looking at Ren* Do you perhaps know how to bake cakes?

Ren: I sadly only learned to make outdoor cuisine, but i'm more than willing to try.

[uss-sonder]

The Crew of the USS Sonder [yet another update]

Top row, from left to right: Saharin W. Exlar. Tenfold Pollux, At'Han Tav, Avyn Niph, Voyager Teshan, Zohar, Laqus T. Raen, Lovebug, August Thompson, M'Row, Darha-evh-te-Anmon-te-Atersu, Solak.

Bottom row, from left to right: Ren Makhat [designed by @justsomeskullkid], Sovanid [designed by @vaguely-wormlike], {no name yet} [designed by @thatfoxdog], {no name yet} [designed by @the-vulcan].

This is my Star Trek OC side blog, main is @headphones-lifeform!

Refsheets and lore beneath the cut. [I use the rainbow flag to mean queer but unlabeled]

Saharin Exlar is the commanding officer of the USS Sonder, a small starship with a crew of circa 200. Exlar likes the idea of having a found-family dynamic with their crew and is hoping to achieve that kind of relationship with them. Due to their telepathy/empathy being somewhat overwhelming, they struggle with differentiating between their own emotions and those of others. Because of this they struggle with recognising their personal identity.

At'Han Tav is the first officer of the USS Sonder. More about her species here. Tav is trying her best to learn the customs and social norms of the other crewmembers, but is still feeling a bit out of place. Despite the initial awkwardness, Tav means well and tries her best to be as kind as possible to the others- occasionally too much so. She likes bizarre humour and art, but is somewhat embarrassed by it.

Tenfold Pollux is a helmsman on the USS Sonder. Having been taken from her pre-warp home planet by space pirates, Pollux has been secretly planning to try and contact it- defying the Prime Directive. She is very expressive, often blinking her bioluminescent forehead marking for emphasis. She has a sarcastic sense of humour and an easy time making friends.

Avyn Niph is a navigator on the USS Sonder. Niph originally joined Starfleet on impulse as an act of rebellion against xeir parents, but has since settled into xeir role. Xe is trying to think things through more often, but is having a difficult time. Niph is good friends with LB, and they enjoy running holodeck simulations together.

Voyager Teshan is the chief science officer of the USS Sonder. Teshan was, in fact, named after the starship, and used to find her name rather embarrassing [at the academy she went by Inkmouth, as she has a tattoo on her tongue]. She tends to act cold and snappy and naturally favours plants over fellow humanoids. However, she is friends with Tav, who helps her out with the botany labs. She has some romantic feelings towards Tav, but falsely believes them to be unrequited. Exlar has to silently suffer because the constant mutual pining on the bridge is giving them migraines.

Laqus Raen is a scientist specialising in astrophysics on the USS Sonder. Raen is very intelligent and has a great sense of aesthetics, often decorating themselves with model planets and stars. They tend to avoid conflict but love social situations, meaning they often go to the ship's recreational areas only to leave minutes later. They enjoy water and have a shallow pool in their quarters.

Zohar is a scientist specialising in astronomy on the USS Sonder. Zohar is my self-insert character, who recently underwent a retcon to make them more Vulcan and more mentally healthy [and more blue-haired]. They are recovering from depression and are rather unsure of who they want to be now. Other than the sciences, they also appreciate the arts and make electronic songs on the side. An alternate-universe Q Zohar also exists, but prime-universe Zohar is unaware of this.

LB is a scientist specialising in xenobiology/exobiology on the USS Sonder. As seen by their chosen form, LB has a special interest in sloths. They appreciate all creatures, but tend to favour ones they find cute. They sometimes space out during away missions, a fact that embarresses them greatly. They have a good eye for detail and give excellent hugs.

August Thompson is the chief medical officer of the USS Sonder. During what would be the first season of this story, Thompson is suspected by many to be a Q. At an important episode, the Q continuum investigates and finds out that Thompson's telekinetic abilities have a different source- a wormhole he and his friend Solak were exposed to as children. It is revealed later that two energy beings escaped the wormhole and merged with Thompson and Solak. Thompson has rather low self-esteem and is often anxious [Solak is trying to help him with that].

Solak is the chief security officer of the USS Sonder. Solak transferred to the Sonder after an important episode, reuniting with her childhood friend Thompson. She is more confident than her counterpart, as well as cunning and strategic. She likes to experiment with her abilities, often making random objects float.

M'Row is the chief engineer of the USS Sonder. M'Row left his former assignment at a starbase in order to look for his partner R'Tess, whos ship mysteriously went missing [I wrote this before I watched Prodigy, Paramount please don't sue me]. He feels a sense of responsibility for the other crewmembers, and sometimes they keep him up at night. He enjoys cooking and often makes snacks for the others. He laments the fact that he cannot drink coffee.

Darha-evh-te-Anmon-te-Atersu is an operations officer on the USS Sonder. Darha comes from a planet divided into factions, each devoted to a different science. She comes from a group of Atersu- the astronomy faction- who teamed up with other factions in order to develop warp speed. She is exceedingly loyal, quick-thinking and often wild with her ideas. A good person to have on any away mission.

I hope you enjoyed! Going to learn animation in November so I can make their show real. If it works out it will be released here and maybe on YT.

[dalliansss]

Egg and Finno ?

Send in two (or more) names and I’ll fill all this out about the ship!

General:

Rate the Ship -   Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs

How long will they last? Depends on the AU. Ideally they last forever, but there are some pitfalls in this relationship. Egg can get terribly pushy in certain aspects, and Fingon is stubborn and can be unforgiving in turn.

How quickly did/will they fall in love? It took them a long time. They were best friends first.

How was their first kiss? Both remember it only vaguely; they were piss-drunk.

Wedding:

Who proposed? No proposal. They wed each other accidentally after a one night's drunken stint.

Who is the best man/men? - N/A

Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - N/A

Who did the most planning? - N/A

Who stressed the most? - Egg. He wanted to give Fingon a proper, grand wedding as befitting their status as princes of the Ñoldor, but Fingon was more grounded on reality and knew it was a political disaster in the making, especially with him (Fingon) being the heir to the High King of the Ñoldor in Beleriand.

How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? N/A

Sex:

Who is on top? Egg, mostly. But they switch. Fingon just likes to relinquish control more often, and he's very good at power bottoming lmfao

Who is the one to instigate things? Both, but Egg more often.

How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

How long do they normally last? 3-4 rounds is the norm. They actually can't get off of each other once they get on it lmfao

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? Yes. Both are very mindful of each other's pleasure.

How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - 

How many children will they adopt? -

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - 

Who is the stricter parent? FIngon

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? Fingon

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? Egg

Who is the more loved parent? If they can have kids, both are well-loved by the children

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? Both

Who cried the most at graduation? Egg

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? Egg

Cooking: 

Who does the most cooking? Fingon. Egg can't cook complicated stuff

Who is the most picky in their food choice? Egg

Who does the grocery shopping? Egg

How often do they bake desserts? Often. Egg likes his desserts

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? More salad eaters.

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? Egg

Who is more likely to suggest going out? Egg

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? Egg, the poor bastard

Chores: 

Who cleans the room? - Fingon

Who is really against chores? - Egg

Who cleans up after the pets? - Fingon

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Egg

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Egg

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? FIngon

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? Egg

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - Egg

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? Egg decorates the manse every year unfailing

What are their goals for the relationship? For Egg, to be able to flaunt Fingon as his husband without consequence. He absolutely detests being hidden. He wants to be able to declare his love openly. For Fingon, he wishes he could relinquish his status as heir and also continue being with Egg without consequence. But Fingon has reservations surrendering the crown to Turgon, who notoriously disappeared without telling anyone.

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? Egg

Who plays the most pranks? Both

@skaelds

[cruella1989]

The Tragic Life of Darth Sidious

Why are villains like Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and Kylo Ren considered tragic? Well, the short answer is because they had “tragic” experiences that played into them going down the wrong path (although I think in the case of the latter it’s debatable). But they’re not what I’m going to discuss today, it’s another villain who has an equally sad background, but for some reason is often considered very unsympathetic. That antagonist is none other than the big bad guy, himself, Emperor Palpatine. 

Personally I’ve never understood why so many fans say that it’s “impossible to feel any sympathy for him” and that he has “no redeeming qualities”. I especially don’t understand these type of statements with the fans that pity other villains. I’m talking about bad guys who have killed and hurt many people, some of which have not reformed, others who don’t even have that sad a backstory. Is it because, he’s the guy in charge? To each their own, I guess? 

Anyway, here’s why I view this particular villain a little differently than the norm. (Disclaimer! I am in no way excusing his actions! I know he’s evil, and I’m simply explaining why I think he’s more sympathetic than many other fans do.)

When we first meet Palpatine in the, now Legends, novel Darth Plagueis he is a troubled seventeen year-old, to say the least. There’s also no denying that he’s an egocentric, little jerk right from the start of his initial appearance. It can be hard to see him as anything other than that, especially with some of the things he admits to have done. Those include all kinds of petty crimes and even vehicular man-slaughter! How are you supposed to feel bad for somebody like that? I’d say the first thing you need to do is look at what caused him to become that way.

I think a lot people either ignore or miss a few very important clues when reading the novel that strongly states he was abused by his father and came from a very dysfunctional home. For example, they tend to take his father buying him out of trouble with the law as a sign that he’s a spoiled brat. Of course, that action does send the message to youth that they are above the law no matter the intent. But the book states that the patriarch of the Palpatine home is doing that because he wants no ‘stain’ on the family name, not out of some kind of mislead love for his troubled son. On top of that, the book makes it clear that his father, Cosinga, was a terrible man that did awful things to the family and all sorts of illegal acts. In fact it’s stated that he committed fraud, made bribes, hired hit men, had multiple mistresses, and intimidated his wife and children into being subservient to him.

“Palpatine forced a laugh. “Only because she espouses no views of her own; only because he has made her subservient to him—as he has my well-behaved brothers and sisters, who treat me like an interloper and yet, to my father, represent all I can never be.”

“Plagueis had no need to delve any further into whatever traumas had given rise to Palpatine’s cunning, secretive nature.”

“Cosinga flung his words with cruel abandon, “It will be so good to have you gone.”

Being raise by someone like that in that kind of environment is really going to mess a kid up, especially if said youth already has violent tendencies. All children need some sort moral guidance, but when a child has a bad temper they particularly need help learning how to controlling it. I think it’s pretty safe to say that young Palpatine was getting much the opposite of what he needed in his childhood home.

“…his father, who shared with his son a penchant for violence,…”

“Sidious took a moment to respond. It was odd to think now that he had once known fear... But as a child, he’d experienced fear as a conditioned response to threat. Despite a reassuring voice inside him that had promised no harm could come, there had been, for a time, a chance that something terrible could happen. More than once his father’s raised hand had made him cringe.”

But, what about him killing his own family before he even became a Sith apprentice? Okay, there’s a difference between premeditated murder and self defense. Palpatine’s dad had just said he wanted to kill him, and in response the boy unleashed a force-storm on him. It was obviously result of a bunch of fear, anger and force power that had been bottled up inside of him. The author makes it plain that he doesn’t know what he’s doing and that he’s even scared of his own power. Heck, Palpatine even tells his mother to stay away from him while this mess in going on. Please, keep in mind he’s only seventeen, has had no force training, and his father just said he wanted him dead.

Also, do not forget that Hego Damask, (aka Plagueis) who was likely Palpatine’s only friend, had goaded him on about killing his father only a few days earlier, when the boy stated that he wanted be free of his family. Yes, he tells the impressionable teenager a story about how he ‘did away’ with his own family, when they were in the way of his own desires. He even admits it after the event is over. 

This particular act by Damask obviously left a big impression on Palpatine and angered him even decades later. This is shown when Sidious brings it up right before killing Plagueis and becoming Sith Master.

{“Hated you more than you know,” Cosinga said, allowing his ire to rise once more. “Enough to want to kill you from the start.”

Palpatine stood his ground. “Then you had better do it now.”

Cosinga took a step in Palpatine’s direction…}

“Palpatine stood rooted in place, his hands trembling in front of him and his face stricken. Something stirred behind his incandescent eyes. He heard the pounding on the hatch and whirled. “Don’t come in! Stay away from me!”

“It was Hego Damask as Plagueis who then set his sights on a seemingly confused young man and, with meticulous skill, manipulated him into committing patricide, matricide, and fratricide.”

Another argument I see being made against young Palpatine has to due with a few insults he and his father throw at each right before the latter’s death. I’ve heard many fans claims that these quotes prove that he was “born evil” or “it’s meant to symbolize the devil”.

{“…You are an animal heart.”

“King of Beasts, Father,” Palpatine said.}

“I knew this day would come. I’ve known it since the first moment I tried to swaddle you, and you fought me with strength that was too powerful for your size and age.”

Okay, to start with his abusive father calling him ‘an animal’ doesn’t mean that he behaved in a sadistic way his entire life. I know that that’s popular belief when in comes to that line, but it is not true. Remember, this is the guy who made most of his family subservient to him. So why wouldn’t he call his rebellious eldest son, a name like that? If the insult did have any meaning to it (beyond just being mean) likely he’s referring to the boy’s bad temper and his trouble with the law. And second Palpatine’s response is more than likely a claim that he’s stronger than his father, not confirming that he’s ‘demonic’ or whatever.

 Also, baby Palpatine being strong and more powerful than the average infant does not prove that he was born evil, or was some kind of demon baby. It only confirms that he was strong in the force from infancy. And guess what? Babies fight all the time.

So, did the troubles stop once the dysfunctional family was gone? Not exactly. After witnessing Palpatine’s strength in the force and hearing the boy admit that his true desire was to be powerful, Plagueis decided to offer him an apprenticeship. Damask revealed that he was a Sith Lord, and told Palpatine that if he swore his allegiance to the order, then he could obtain great power. 

He, of course, took the offer as he did crave power, and there was a promise of it. Was it the right path to take? No. Did he join for selfish reasons, like the promised strength and authority. Of course, why else would he? But, that doesn’t change the fact that he was put through a lot brutal physical, mental and emotional tests while going through Sith training. 

I’d also like to add, that unbeknownst to the his new pupil, the Sith Master had other plans to use the boy as a way of obtaining power for himself. This basically involve getting Palpatine elected Chancellor, (since a human stood a better chance than a Muun) and using Sidious as a ‘puppet’ while he called the shots. So Plagueis was not innocent here, by any means.

"He admits it! And who better than a human to wear the mask of power while an immortal Sith Lord rules in secret!" 

{“Now tell me again, Apprentice, and in greater detail.”

Once more Sidious allowed his memories to unfold, and he relived the crime— the event as he had come to think of it. His father’s limp and bloody body, the smashed skulls of the bodyguards, his hands around his mother’s slender throat��but not really, only in his mind—strangling her with his thoughts, the lifeless forms of his siblings, slumped here and there. In telling it and telling it, in reliving it, he had finally gained a kind of authority over it; the ability to see the event merely for what it was, without emotion, without judgement. It was as if the event had occurred years, rather the months, earlier.}

“…You want strangle me like you did you’re poor, misunderstood mother, tear me limb from limb like you did the bodyguards. Fair enough. But to do so you will have to make a greater effort, Apprentice.”

Clawing his way across the tundra, his body rashed with lightsaber burns, Sidious looked up at Plagueis imploringly, “H-how much longer…Master?” 

The final dispute that I tend to hear made against him is that he was “tricking” his master, Plagueis, the whole time they worked together. Personally, I never saw that. Much of the dialog, his internal thoughts and the situations that he was in during the Sith training made it pretty clear Sidious was not the one in control. 

Now it is true that Palpatine does start tricking him later, as he gains more desire for power, and wants to kill Plagueis and become the Sith Master. It starts off subtlety but you can tell when he starts loosing respect for Plagueis and wondering when he will be the one in charge. I’m not saying that it didn’t start before that, but I just have a hard time imagining the young Sidious “clouding” his master’s mind the entire time, without any previous training.

I’d also like to point out that despite popular belief, it’s actually never stated that he was tricking him the whole time, not even during his villainous rant at the end. What Palpatine actually says is that he never intended to share the power. And okay even if he had somehow been “clouding” Plagueis’ mind (despite having no force training) during the entire apprenticeship, what do you expect out some one who was raised in a dysfunctional home until age seventeen and was then taken in by a mass murderer? 

“You lost the game on the very first day you chose to train me to rule by your side—or better still under your thumb!”

“The truth is, I haven’t changed. As we have clouded the minds of the Jedi, I clouded your’s. Never once did I have any intention of sharing power with you.”

Now, I’m sure that people are going to claim that, unlike many other Star Wars villains, he still as no redeeming qualities. Of course, having no positive qualities makes it much harder to view him in any sort of positive light or feel pity for him. At least it would be if that were true. Especially in Legends timeline, there are several glimpses of humanity that we see from him. These are mostly shown by some attempts to help and in hints that he cares about his apprentices in his own twisted way.

“…that the force was strong in the infant was reason enough not to let it wonder around unprotected, and perhaps fall in the hands of the Jedi.”

“There is a moment—just one moment,” McDiarmid remembers, “It’s after Anakin’s been almost destroyed and he’s got little life in him. Palpatine has sent for a medical team and he’s waiting for them to arrive—and he just gently touches Anakin’s forehead. Sidious doesn’t have any qualities we normally associate with humanity, except he does have a master-servant relationship with Anakin. Anakin means something to him.” 

The Making of Star Wars: Episode III- The Revenge of the Sith 

J.W. Rinzler 

I hope that you enjoyed this article and that it has clarified things, and maybe helped you see him in a bit of a different light.  

[kob131]

This is basically part 2 of my rebuttal against the post above. For part one, I'll leave a link.

Okay, with that out of the way-

'Progressive' is not synonymous with 'good'.

The actual issue Dextixer seems to have with RWBY in this instance at least is that RWBY doesn't approach it's story telling in a 'progressive' manner.

"And its because RWBY COULD have been hopepunk and went out of its way to blaze ahead in this new genre of writing.

After all, the main bad guy of the show cannot even be defeated in regular ways. "There is no victory in strength". It is the unification of humanity that is required for her to finally possibly be removed from the world.

This is a PERFECT set-up for a journey to fight against injustices in the kingdoms!

Fighting racism in all of the kingdoms! Fighting monarchists in Vacuo. Fighting against militarism and classism in Atlas. Fighting the nationalism of the kingdoms and uniting them together against all odds by adressing systemic problems of society!

The best we get in the show are hints of these things or them being cranked up to 11 and never adressed at their core, only beaten down.

I would PAY money to see Weiss take back the SDC and then financing and offering political support to Blake who recreates the White Fang in her own way in EVERY kingdom, fighting racism both through word and action. I would PAY for seeing Robyn unite with Blake and both going out and helping the people of Mantle, maybe even distributing food, organizing the construction of new buildings and the like. I would PAY to see Ren and Nora try to give help to the homeless and the abandoned due to their own experiences.

I would PAY to see Ruby and Yang organizing huntsmen to be less focused on the Grimm and more focused on being pillars of their communities, spreading out throughout new settlements and villages to not only protect them but also help them in other ways.

Remnant is a WORLD OF POSSIBILITY to create systemic problems that plague our world and then FIX them!

And instead NO problems are adressed as we have to fight the immortal Sauron rip-off that sits on her arse half the time doing nothing! Our protagonists do not organize communities, they barely engage with subplots that should by all rights be theirs. The systemic problems are beaten down through violence or just outright dissapear."

The issue with this is simple. You can't act as both a progressive and an individualist.

Progressivism in modern America preaches about social reform and an end to inequality. It's all about tearing down the system keeping people down after all. But when you listen to enough of the arguments and goals of self proclaimed progressives and you notice a recurring trend: they think in terms of collectives. They preach about ending racism while defining racial groups in ways that restrict their actions and choices. They preach about ending inequality while individuals choosing their own decisions would inevitably CAUSE inequality. They preach about social reform but define the ills in such ways that they exclude any deviations from the norm (i.e. racism against white people).

This completely flies in the face of individuality. Which is uh...kind of a problem given that RWBY is heavily, extremely individualistic. The individual and their identity and expression is baked into both the design, powerset, naming and backstory of the show. To the point that the main enemy of the show, the Grimm, lack any kind of individual identity and are instead masked creatures borrowing the appearances of animals.

The implication that Dextixer's criticisms are in part due to the show being incompatible with his politics is...rather telling. He doesn't try explaining why people might use the hopepunk label or what the show actually wishes to do. That and his history of defending Ironwood, a highly collectivist man, tell me that one shouldn't listen to him. Yes he says it's his opinion. Would you listen to a TERF's opinion of Steven Universe?

[hex-fics]

Shameless- Part Two

———————————

AN: ask and you shall receive! Seriously thank you all so much for the support on part one. I think it’s safe to say that this is going to at the very least get a part three as well. No content warnings (other then getting in trouble at work) happy reading!

Part one

———————————

You still feel giddy the next morning, even though you know nothing will likely come of it.

Still it was nice to be flirted with.

Though there is a part of you thats nervous for your next interaction with Marcus, hopefully he was rushing out the door as usual. You don’t think he was happy with you for interrupting his meeting.

As usual the door was left open for you but as you approach the kitchen you see that Ren is not sitting at the table eating her breakfast which is the norm. Instead Marcus is sitting at the table red faced.

Here you go.

You put on your best brave face,”good morning Marcus.”

“Sit down.”

You do as instructed.

“I thought I made myself very clear last night.”

You sigh,” you did, and I promise I didn’t mean to interrupt the meeting, but I didn’t feel comfortable just standing outside. Besides the woman at the door-“

“You shouldn’t have left your keys in the first place. You were careless and you made me look unprofessional.”

You remind yourself of the fact that Marcus payes almost double what other nanny’s make in Piltover and bite back the urge to remind your boss that his company is the one who invited you to join the conversation.

“You’re completely right. My apologies.”

He keeps his eyes trained on you for a moment before he sighs.

“Good. I expect that it won’t happen again.”

“Of course not.”

He stands from the table and walks out of the kitchen. You swallow your anger and walk over to Ren’s door.

When you open it she is sitting on her bed reading a book.

Any negative feelings melt away as she looks up at you and grins.

“So,” you say leaning on the doorframe,”ready for the museum?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ren was excited chatting your ear off on the way home. She’s mostly a quiet kid but she always loves talking about the new things she’s learned. As you approach the building she is just getting to how the scientist at the museum demonstrated the hexgates using a toy pirate ship and two hoola hoops.

Thats when you notice a familiar face in front of the building.

She is standing in front of the doors impatiently, and fiddling with her arm.

You and Ren approach cautiously.

“Good morning! I’m sorry I didn’t realize Marcus had any meetings today. Me and Ren can make ourselves scares.”

She looks up at you, beginning to look halfway amused.

“No need.”

“Did you leave something last night? If you can tell me what-“

“I’m dropping off not picking up,” she leans down and picks something off the ground.

It was easy not to notice the bouquet of flowers next to the imposing woman.

The flowers were a mix of the white lily’s you could find in Piltover and what you assume were undercity plants. They were a deep green with tiny budding flowers so darkly purple they seemed almost black. The vase that held them was glass, with a stained glass rim, dark purple again.

“He left a card in there too.”

“Wow well thank you for delivering, I’m sorry I never got your name.”

“Sevika, and please, thank me by making him send a different messenger next time.”

You chuckle,”I’ll see what I can do.”

She begins walking down the street and Ren looks up at you smiling.

“Those are really pretty!”

“They are! I’ll have to keep them in the kitchen for a but so they get some light.”

“What do you think the card says?”

You laugh again,”right now my main concern is getting you lunch. Come on lets head in.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the end of the day Ren is quietly reading in her bedroom while you do the dishes from dinner.

You haven’t read the note yet as you wanted to make sure you weren’t distracted throughout the day.

Though the anticipation was beginning to kill you, you still felt it was best to finish up your work before you indulge.

There was also a tinge of worry.

Of course you knew that Marcus wasn’t going to be happy. For whatever reason he seemed to be extremely unhappy that you’d even met Silco, you doubt that he would be thrilled that he was sending you flowers. Though it was probably nothing. Just a friendly gesture.

Drying your hands off and leaving the last plates on the rack you finally pull yourself over to the flowers and do your best to calm your nerves.

The card was written in an elegant cursive -

“Dearest,

It was such a pleasure to meet you last night. My only regret is that we met under such awkward circumstances, I do hope I haven’t caused any problems with your boss. I know he can be quite the curmudgeon. I hope I’m not overstepping but I find myself unable to stop thinking of you. I am sure that a beautiful young woman such as yourself has much better things to do with her time but if you happen to find a gap in your schedule soon please let me know. I would very much like to see you again. Ive left an address for you to write to if you would like that as well.

With affection,

Silco.”

You feel heat rising to your cheeks again just as you hear the door open.

Quickly you shove the card into the pocket of your pants as Marcus enters the room.

If you look flustered he doesn’t mention it as he puts his helmet on the counter. You can see the beads of sweat on his brow.

“Evening Marcus.”

“Hey, how’d everything go today?”

“Oh just fine. You know Ren, though don’t be surprised if she spends all of bedtime talking about Hectech.”

He smiles,”well when doesn’t she?”

“Fair point, there’s leftovers in the fridge by the way.”

“Ugh you’re a godsend,” just as he moves to grab food you can tell the vase finally moves into his line of vision.

“Trying to liven up the place?”

You can feel the heat rising again,”no they were a gift.”

He raises an eyebrow,”who is sending gifts to you here?”

“Silco,” you try to keep your voice level but you don’t think it works.

“Silco? Are you kidding me? What the hell did he want?”

The half truth falls off your tongue faster than you meant it to.

“Nothing. He was just worried that he got me in trouble. Wanted to apologize in case he overstepped.”

Marcus calms a fraction of a degree.

“Look. I can’t go into much detail but you need to be…careful. If he tries to approach you again you need to let me know.”

“I thought you worked with him?”

“He’s… he’s just, difficult ok? I know you don’t know much about it but people from the undercity are dangerous. Even the ones I …work with.”

He makes a face like he’s tasted something sour on the last words.

“Just promise me you’ll let me know if he tries to contact you. Ok?”

Normally you would be insulted that he thought he had any say what you did in your own time.

But there was something strange.

Marcus had a look in his eyes.

It wasn’t the usual rage or annoyance.

He was afraid.

Something about Silco scared him.

You feel yourself nod.

“I’ll let you know.”

He sighed again,”thank you.”

With that you pick up the vase and purse (double checking for your keys) and exit the apartment.

You feel the card burning a hole in your pocket ever step back to your own home.

[erabundus]

he  arches  a  brow,  fully  prepared  to  inquire  further.  ren  knows  he  has  a  tolerance  for  HEAT  that  goes  well  above  and  beyond  the  norm.  from  that  little  scrap  of  information  alone,  he's  already spinning  together  a  devious  plot  to  trick  the  illustrious  conqueror  of  demons  into  trying  something  both  innocuous  appearing  and  horribly  spicy  (  just  to  see  how  he  would  react  )  when  an  unfamiliar  voice  cuts  clean  through  his  thoughts.  it's  probably  for  the  best. some act of divine, merciful intervention that puts a stop to his schemeing  —  for  xiao's  sake.

the wanderer turns and cants his head. huh. it's a kid.

a  faint  smile  tugs  unbidden  at  one  corner  of  his  mouth.  ren  watches  the  boy  with  clear  AMUSEMENT  —  and  once  again,  it's  strange  the  contrast  between  this  gentle  soul  and  the  same  mysterious  nuisance  who  challenged  a  yaksha  without  so  much  as  a  shred  of  hesitation.  when  he  comes  to  a  stop  in  front  of  them  and  makes  his  theatrical  declaration,  the  wanderer  exhales  a  soft  laugh  at  the  IRONY.  he  has  half  a  mind  to  ask  xiao  what  he  thinks  of  the  display  —  ah,  but  it  seems  that  will  have  to  wait,  for  he's  being  grilled  by  the  (  true  )  conqueror  of  demons  himself.

❝  why,  the  vigilant  yaksha?  forgive  my  impertinence!  ❞  he  swipes  the  hat  from  his  head,  holding  it  to  his  chest  as  he  ducks  low  —  an  exaggerated,  almost  excessively  formal  bow.  ❝  my name is ren. i  am  but  a  simple  wanderer,  whose  travels  have  brought  him  to  this  prosperous  land of contracts.  i promise i mean you no harm; my  only  wish  is  to  experience  the  joys  of  the  lantern  rite  festival  for  myself.  ❞   as  he  goes  to  straighten  up,  there's  a  split  second  moment  wherein  his  hat  passes  over  his  face  —  cutting  off  the  child's  line  of  sight.  ren  takes  the  opportunity  to  shoot  a  look  at  his  companion;  an  impish  sneer  flashing  across  delicate  countenance,  tongue  poking  teasingly  from  one  corner  of  his  mouth.  it's  a  reminder,  a  playful little  jab.  (  not  that  xiao  is  wont  to  forget.  )  the  wanderer  is  a  person  who  dons  many  faces  —  yet  they  are  all  EQUALLY  him,  for  better  or  worse.

❝  it's truly  an  honor  to  be  in  your  presence.  ❞  ren  is soon to continue,  hat  returning  to  its  usual  place  atop  his  head.  (  expression  wiped  clean  of  its  momentary  mischief.  )   ❝  thank  you  for  all  of  your  hard  work;  you  have  my  sincerest  gratitude!  ❞

he  pauses  then,  wheels  spinning  in  his  head.  ❝  you  know,  ❞  the  wanderer  begins  innocently,  ❝  my  friend  here  is  a  HUGE  fan  of  yours.  he's  just  a  bit  shy  —  but  he  really  likes  your  mask,  right?  ❞   he  shoots  xiao  a  cheerful  smile.   ❝  riiight?  ❞

xiao has quietly skirted around and through the city of liyue harbor for almost as long as it has stood here on the coast. ever since before the archon wars were even a notion, when rex lapis himself established it as a safe haven for his people. thousands of years and countless generations stronger, and here it still stands. golden and glittering and-- the people? well, all of theirs now: the millelith, the remaining willing adepti, the qixing.

he's ruminating on all of it with a sense of pride with a tinge of bittersweet. (was this what rex lapis felt daily nowadays as he strolled these streets as zhongli? pride, nostalgia and a bit of melancholy?)

the flash of purple light draws his attention instantly, and the yaksha watches with widening eyes as the item disappears directly into his chest. he blinks. stares at the wanderer's torso like he's expecting anything else to happen. if he had to liken it to anything he'd ever seen, he'd compare it mostly to the utility of someone moving items in and out of a realm within; but this seems to be a realm within ren's own body.

he opens his mouth ask if to ask, but then shuts it shortly with a light shake of his head. turns his attention back to the street where they're headed. "i do eat. some foods i can't stomach, though, so i haven't tried eating many different things--"

"conquering EVIL!!!" xiao doesn't jump. or, when asked later, he'll say he didn't. the voice from behind them is accompanied by light, sprinting footsteps. it's a young boy with dark hair, with what looks like a broomstick in his hand. on his face is a fanged festival mask, except the young wearer seems to have painted it green instead of the customary red and white. the boy runs a clumsy circle around the pair of them, making whooshing wind noises as he goes before he stops in front of ren. knocks the end of his broomstick on the ground authoritatively.

"i am the vigilant yaksha! speak your name, stranger! for.... i, i am the one who keeps liyue safe!" the young boy punctuates his statement with a giggle, absolutely lit up with delight and festival cheer.

the actual vigilant yaksha himself doesn't say anything. just lightly crosses his arms and looks at the wanderer with raised brows.

[oyasuminto]

How do you think Strade, Ren and Lawrence would work/fit into the DoL universe? I feel like it'd be an interesting shift for those characters considering the attitudes and norms of rapechestershire and would love to hear your thoughts!

I'm interpreting this as the BTD boys were born and grew up in the world of DOL!

Lawrence works at the docks, rarely interacting with his co-workers and turning down any invites to pubs crawls. He despises the town of Rapechestershire; a town of degeneracy and true evil, where people seem wilfully ignorant of its hideous underbelly and unnatural goings-on.

But Lawrence knows better. He's heard the bang, bang, bang of fists hitting metal inside shipping containers. He's seen the purple tendrils worming their way up from the sewer.

Sometimes he takes things home from work, namely fertilizer. No-one cares, he's sure. They don't dare confront Lawrence, not when they've seen his expression switch from timid and fearful to glazed over and full of malice.

Most people in Rapechestershire know better than to attack Lawrence; he has no qualms with leaving the town's molesters bruised and bloodied messes for the hospital to deal with.

He likes the forest, even considers building his own cabin there—he's heard stories of a fellow recluse doing the same thing. There are few who dare wander deeper into the forest, scared of wolves and bears. Animals tend to avoid Lawrence, but predators may be attracted to the aura of decay that surrounds him.

Ren refuses to leave the house without pepper spray. It’s expensive, sure, but £2500 is a small price to pay for his safety. He gets a nice house on a nice street, not Danube, but far nicer than Domus, and installs a high-quality security system.

The people of Rapechestershire don’t seem to question just how he has fox ears and a fox tail. At most, they ask if it’s some kind of costume or make a gross comment about ‘domesticating’ him.

Ren is just one of the town’s many oddities. So what if some furry’s running around, that’s nothing compared to the old guy at the pub who stares at nothing and mutters words that sound nothing like any known language.

Sometimes he hears whispers of other people like him; people with wolf ears or cat tails or bird wings. No-one seems quite certain about what they’ve seen, with some brushing it off as an old folktale spurred on by weird high schoolers.

All things considered, Ren’s life in Rapechester is far safer than most—pepper spray enough creeps and word’ll spread that you’re not one to mess with—but he’s still constantly on guard, terrified that the next corner he turns could be his last, that someone could come out of the shadows and snatch him up any moment now.

Strade‘s worst habits are just being encouraged. A little money here and there, and the local cops are happy to drop undesirables right in his lap. He prefers the thrill of the hunt, but there’s something to be said about the convenience of having law enforcement turn a blind eye.

Sure, murder’s considered a very serious crime, but no-one cares if he gets his rocks off with a nice rough fuck every now and then, not even if his ‘partner’ is squirming and sobbing. Hell, some even want a turn when he’s done.

Such things are simply expected, it’s just a fact of life in Rapechestershire that you will, at some point, be brutalized in a dark alleyway by some stranger you’ll never see again.

And the police will brush off every single thing, coming up with some bullshit about a backlog so they don’t have to deal with an unsolvable crime that won’t even net them a profit.

He knows just how corrupt the town is; he’s seen the local headmaster flirting with whores young enough to be his student, heard of some gun-wielding maniac hiding in the woods, watched a student face-fuck another student in broad daylight as their peers cheered and filmed. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

[kitkatopinions]

Do you know what I think is very badly done? This whole ‘every weapon has a name’ thing in RWBY. When has it ever come up in the story? When has it ever actually been part of the world building? How many times have we actually heard people calling their weapons by these hokey dumb names? I’m not claiming to be a professional in any way, shape, or form, but even I know a couple basic things about world building; Like ‘don’t make every society and civilization the same,’ and ‘actually have the thing at least somewhat relevant to your world.’

But what trips me up arguably the most is that... It just doesn’t seem practical, nor fitting for each character. They’re Huntsman, we’ve already seen Blake’s weapon get damaged twice and it seems like the obvious thing that Hunters’ weapons would break and/or get damaged often, so it’s hard for me to imagine that most hunters in the field bother to name them.

Ruby naming her weapon makes sense to me. She’s a weapons nerd, she’s young, she made her weapon herself (which we’re led to believe isn’t the norm, I feel like,) so yeah, that one checks out. Jaune and Weiss having weapons that have names? Sure, okay. Jaune’s weapon is a family heirloom, Weiss’s very well could be as well. Weapons that have been passed down for generations that have given names, makes a lot of sense. I can even - in a stretch - accept that Yang’s weapon has a name, because as someone who named electronics for years and prompted family members to name their electronics as well, I can say “sure, Yang might’ve named her weapon because Ruby did and she was humoring her or because she thought it’d be fun.” It could even arguably fit Nora’s personality.

But Adam? Ren? Ironwood? Emerald? Robyn Hill? Raven?

And the name of Qrow’s weapon bothers me. Why would someone who is sensitive about and hates his bad luck semblance name his weapon ‘Harbinger?’ 

It’s like they really did think they were writing for a video game, where you buy and upgrade items with special titles like RWBY is like Kingdom Hearts with all manner of keyblades. It has nothing to do with the characters or the world, it doesn’t matter and isn’t even really in the world at all, it’s just some dumb quirk that they thought makes them distinctive. It’d make them a heck of a lot more distinctive if this was something that was woven into their world building, if there was a tradition of Hunters naming weapons that was less featured in places like Atlas where the job is less romanticized and treated more practically, that older Hunters tend to drop as they become less attached to their weapons, but that young hunters treat as a sign towards good weapon understanding and care, and maybe Ruby could’ve asked Jaune what his sword was called when she first met him. Instead of them never actually calling any weapon outside of RWBY’s by name. When I tell you that if I didn’t go to the wiki for research purposes when I need to for these posts, I would literally not know that this quirk of the show existed, and would just assume that Ruby named her weapon because she’s a weapon’s nerd and is also young and quirky herself.

TL;DR I have no idea why the RWBY writers/creators decided that they had to give names to every weapon, despite not actually using those names or including it in their world building in any way... And I think it’s stupid that they did.

[rubia-peregrinart]

Finished Royal 3 days ago and now I can finally get this out of my system.

I was of the ones to initially believe Sumi would be a FeMC, lo and behold… Roleswap AU !

I was aware that, despite being uncommon, male rythmic gymnasts do exist - but when doing some research, I was surprised to learn that Japan - of all places, conveniently - had their distinct Men’s Rythmic Gymnastics, with their own norms (in apparatus and movements particularly), so there we have it.

Ideas under the cut-

A challenge of roleswaps is that I never know how much I could/should swap, but here’s what I have so far :

- Sumire Yoshizawa was an ordinary girl until she had the misfortune of running into a drunk politician, alone, at night. Though a well-aimed blow of her umbrella saved her from assault, she ended up framed and was forced to move to Tokyo. Rumors spread fast, however, and Shujin students believe her to be some kind of yandere.

She’s quiet and reserved, but remains honest, able to speak her mind when prompted to even outside of the metaverse. (I dunno if I should keep Joker for her codename ? I had thought of Harley, y’know, but we’d lose the trump card symbolism (and create more comics shenanigans) so.)

- “Akira” Amamiya, codename Lotus, is a rising star of MRG, practicing hard both for his own self-fulfillment and to bring more recognition to the sport. He aims to be world champion - a promise he’d made with his late younger twin, Ren. His special status, looks, and manners, which has him sometimes dubbed “Shujin’s Akechi”, make him subject to the disdain of several male students.

Although friendly and likeable, he has a mischievous side that is quick to show to anyone getting to know him.

I might try to give their Personas a shot later - basically Cendrillon and Arsene but with eachother’s aesthetic. I was thinking of the name Irene (not quite a thief, but the one woman who managed to decieve Sherlock Holmes) for Sumire’s, and Kai (the deuteragonist of the Snow Queen, brainwashed and trapped by the latter Maruki-style) for Ren’s. Another candidate for Ren’s would be Nutcracker.

Thank you for reading ! Feel free to hmu if you have ideas - like with the FutaGo-but-evil AU, my brain farts concepts but sucks at making actual plots for them

[collar-shocked]

Ren shook his head in insistence. "I do like that name.." As if he needed to defend himself. Then, they said something he doesn't quite grasp. He gave a puzzled look and a nose-wiggle. "Came out of what? Were you taken by someone before? Did you escape that time?.." He asked almost excitedly. Almost. Not that Ren is one to judge or diss, he is simply ignorant to more out-of-norm gender ideas. He never got to experience identity exploration...

His eyes held a glint in them. Like it's the first time he's been sure of something through their introduction- that this is a conversation he wants to have. He figured he should offer some answers of his own, out of courtesy.

"Mm-hmm.. The collar keeps me good. Or, us.. He'll shock us if we're not. It's a lot easier to just listen to him, that's.. That's my advice.." He nodded confidently, as if to convince himself. His eyes then moved down, looking at himself, his own scarred legs. "I thought 'plaything' might be a strong word, but.. Pretty much.."

Jealous?

[ren-c-leyn]

Happy Tbtt, Ren, our writeblr delight^^ How is it going with the two impulse projects? With the romantic political fantasy and the op mage one? It's a different process for you, I'm hearing, so I'm curious^^

@writingonesdreams

Ah, thank you, Dreams, you're an absolute delight <3

It is a very different process than my norm for both of them. The thing about politics is that there's a lot of moving pieces too it that requires a lot of thought. Also, the thing about starting a story with little of the plot and none of the world building beforehand is I have 0 idea what I'm doing and I'm hoping it doesn't collapse on me ^^'

The process of The Dark Princess of Aconitum's process turning into quite the ramble. I really do hope your chair is comfortable, this will be a read XD

Fixing this because tumblr messed it up when I posted -

 In addition to the normal political drama killing a king is both very difficult and very treasonous, trying to do so without endangering herself or her claim to the throne will be even more so; trying to catch professional assassins hired secretly by said king to kill a foreign crowned prince, different noble houses from her own kingdom and foreign lands throwing their sons and daughters at the princess for a chance at the throne, diplomatic break downs and pressures from the dead lover's mother, a magical and equally angry elven queen; trying to manage a kingdom in the middle of turbulent times, dealing with the end of a war they just got out of with the dark elven kingdom to their south, two large empires clashing in the world, one riding dragons and one rules by a Dark Lord, and I've really got my work cut out for me.

I'm going to have to not only fill in my skeleton of a plot, but also the intent and actions of each noble house, every main character, the way the people are responding to it all, the state the kingdoms are in, and where these goals and dozens of other threads clash and their results, all the while working at how the Princess uncovers the identities of her lover's killers and who hired them, and her eventual revenge and what method she uses for it.

I think I'm going to have to do like I did for The Plight of a Sparrow, my now second most complex story, and run down the story from each character's point of view.

In the meantime, while I'm considering all of this and am still building characters, dear goodness the amount of characters T-T There's going to be at least 20 for the first book, I swear. I haven't even bothered trying to name them all, yet XD That's 20 different mannerisms, personalities, personal goals, loyalties, alliances, and enemy lists I need to work out. My one spot of good fortune is that I won't have to deal with all of them the entire way through.

I also need to factor in how magic interacts with the world and build that into the thick of things. Because if there's scrying magic, why wouldn't she just go find a mage? If there's invisibility magic, would anyone even have seen the assassins? And a dozen other questions I need to answer about the world itself.

I also haven't read many political fantasys. Actually @writeblrfantasy is one of my first exposures to the genre, so I've decided to watch as many of the shows relating to that kind of thing as my housemates have thrown at me as I can. It's given me some good ideas.

I'm actually planning on starting a document with what I have thought up so far so I can start to kind of weave the web so to speak. I think it'll get easier as I start checking things off the list so I have something more solid to work with. I am making progress, though. I've got the angry princesses' three main accomplices figured out, and am working on building her personal set of alliances. As I flesh out her father and his alliances I think I'll get a better idea of where the rest fall.

At the exact opposite end of the spectrum is Mage of the Final Rest. I have winged 8k words of it so far, have an over powered mage girl, her new dragon friend, her adopted father, a mage of some renown himself, and a couple of random passages from an in-universe magic guide between the chapters. No plot, just vibes and a vague concept of a fantasy/adventure slice of life. There isn't much of a process here except keep writing and hope my brain decides it has a plan by the time I get to the end of what I planned. I don't even have much in the way of world building, outside of how magic works.

It's fun, but also kind of stressful. I don't have a good history with just jumping into projects without any sort of grounding in plot or world building so I'm getting a little nervous.

Thanks for stopping in, Dreams. I hope you have a nice day/evening ^^

[luckyharbinger]

(REPOST) Winter’s Role in Volume 8

...and as it relates to Staff Theory, because...well, look who posted this.

So it’s not really a secret that Winter has always had a sort of passive role throughout the series. She’s a supporting character in every sense, not just a non-main character but a character who’s never the center of her own story. Everything she is as a person is tightly bound to someone else, as opposed to the kids of Team RWBY, JNOR, and co. who could all easily be the main characters of their own mini-series. Everything Winter does or “desires” is in the interest of someone else.

So what I’m going to discuss below is how that narrative rut affects her, how it relates to a few other characters, and what it might mean for the finale of Volume 8.

Alas, the original of this post got deleted, so if you liked the analysis, please give this one a reblog instead, since the other read-more directs to nothing.

Let’s start with V8Ch1.

This seems like a pretty normal thing to say to someone in the wake of terrible loss, doesn’t it?

Well...yes, on the surface. But from a narrative standpoint, there’s a little more going on here. This is one of many instances in which Winter is expected to take the place of someone else.

In Volume 7, it’s established that Winter was selected to be the next Winter Maiden, something she claims that she’d taken as her own destiny, but obviously not something she herself had ever planned for. At that time, it was unclear if taking the Maiden ability would change her as a person. But with that mantle taken by Penny (haha), Winter has a new void to fill: the one Clover left behind.

Let’s take a look at V7Ch3.

Sounds familiar, no?

The way the narrative compares Winter and Clover is more subtle than the comparison between Clover and Qrow, but there all the same. It’s a more situational difference and something that doesn’t have as much to do with who they are as people. In a narrative sense, Clover’s death quite literally marks a pivot in the plot where things go from pretty bad to absolutely fucked. Clover, you see, is Atlas’s good luck charm. When he’s around, things go well. He’s playful with his team. He likes Qrow. He says “James.”

Winter, on the other hand, isn’t lucky at all. After Clover dies (and with Winter attempting and failing to replace him), things are a little less than ideal. Everything’s going to hell. Winter is frigid and professional with his team, such as when she pulls rank. She’s always disliked Qrow. She says “sir.”

Anyways, back to V8.

It's pretty obvious in this scene that James could use a bit of comfort. He's only human. He's afraid. But James and Winter don't have that kind of relationship. She calls him sir. The person who would've called him "James" is on the table in the other room, and in fact, James had just been looking there before turning to thank her.

Winter almost forgets herself here. The pause between the question and "sir" implies that for a moment, Winter saw a terrified man instead of her usually fearless General. But James and Winter are colleagues, not friends, so Winter adds the formality back in, despite James quietly admitting to a moment of weakness.

Let's be clear: James is not consciously expecting Winter to replace Clover emotionally. No one is. James and Clover clearly have a history (see this post for a bit of talk on how Clover represents James's now lost left hand) and Winter obviously can't make up for that.

Let's take a look at V8CH7.

There's a reason Ren cuts Harriet off before she says "Clover." I'd wager there's two reasons. The first, of course, being that Clover is due to return, and the second being that even if he wasn't, Winter can't ever be him, and it's a disservice to her personhood to act as though she could.

Now, Winter knows she can't fill that void Clover left. I don't think she's really trying to, even as she's aware of that expectation (however subconscious that expectation may be). You can tell by the way they hide her expression when Harriet tries to named her as Clover's replacement. But Winter isn't like Weiss, where she becomes her own person after being free from her father. She doesn't fight people's expectations or really establish her own goals like Weiss does. She either runs from it (Schnee legacy) or she just goes with it (Maiden, Clover.)

I think Winter in some way will be a catalyst for the finale events. Nothing on Atlas's side will change until Winter changes, and she could very well be the last straw to either undo James or put him back together. It's not enough for Winter to simply not fulfill the expectation to replace Clover. She must actively and openly refuse it.

I'm not really sure what's going to trigger this change. Possibly Marrow, should he defect first, possibly a confrontation with Weiss after the bomb goes off. But every character's name speaks to some aspect of their character, and I think that if James represents Atlas, then much like the harsh climate, Winter will be something that's deeply impactful towards the fate of both him and the city.

Winter has not been her own person as long as we have known her, and that won't change so long as she is filling an expectation, taking someone else's place, or filling some void. Both Penny and Ren have stated that she matters, not as a Maiden or as a soldier but as a person with choices, and her character cannot grow until she takes those words to heart.

Both James and the Ace Ops are upset that someone they loved has died, but societal norms set in Atlas even before the Great War insist that teams aren’t made of your ride-or-dies, but of coworkers with no platonic or familial attachments. This emotional dissonance leaves them seeking a quick replacement instead of properly processing their grief, and this is where they subconsciously attach their emotional needs to their professional requirements from Winter.

What Ren is saying here isn’t just that Clover is too important to be replaced, but that Winter is too important to replace him.

[itsclydebitches]

Was planning on making this my own post, but I thought you would be more suited to discussing this sort of topic. Something I've noticed when it comes to the more prominent/important/strong female characters (Nora, Pyrrha, Penny, Robyn, Emerald, Sienna) is that RT often has the tendency of giving them masculine allusions (Thor, Achilles, Pinocchio, Robin Hood, Aladdin, Shere Khan) as if they are unable to stand on their own as characters unless they have that connection to a male character. 1/3

It is worth discussing! Yeah, I hesitate to call it a pattern just because, as you say, Team RWBY themselves are an exception to the rule  — and as the title characters of the story, they’re a pretty big exception. We also have good women allusions turned into good women characters (Glynda with The Good Witch, May with Maid Marian) and bad women allusions turned into good women characters (Winter with The Snow Queen — I don’t think she was ever meant to enter full antagonist territory, but that’s another post). So it’s not just a matter of saying, “RWBY models their strong women after male inspirations and turns all female inspirations into male characters.” It’s not that simple. But the fact that it’s not simple doesn’t mean there’s nothing there to unpack because I definitely understand the feeling you’re pointing to, anon. Team RWBY feels like it has the most thought put into it in terms of changing up these allusions, specifically when it comes to subversion: the little girl in a red hood who previously needed a hunter’s protection has become the hunter herself, Belle overcomes both her Gaston and the now evil Beast, Snow White extracts herself from her own abusive situation (with a little help from the Dwarves still), and Goldilocks is no longer lost and in need of basic necessities, but can rather punch her way out of any establishment  — like, say, a club. The execution of these themes aside (how Adam was handled, turning Jacques’ arrest into a joke, etc.), there’s a commonality here that works. Or at least, it works for me. Yet when we expand the allusions past our title team, things get... very messy. That’s when we start to hit on these concerns. 

I’d say the problem stems primarily from that lack of thought, not the act itself of turning women characters into men or vice versa. Meaning, as I’ve said in the past, RWBY’s use of allusions is terribly unreliable nowadays, and that’s not just in terms of plot expectations like, “Why did Penny have to become a flesh girl because Pinocchio, but Ironwood didn’t stay good because Tin Man?” It also includes these questions of why these changes were made and what sort of messages they send. As you lay out, why are so many of our heavy hitters  — the most talented huntress, the lightning-immune smasher, the Maiden android, etc.  — based on men? Why are many of the effeminate and “weaker” men  — Jaune the untrained, Ren the emotional councilor, Oscar the kid who wants to talk it all out  — based on women? Again, I don’t intend to sling any hard accusations, but rather to point out what’s likely a subtle, unconscious bias. To provide another example, I’ve seen talk recently about how RT (again, unconsciously) depicts the faunus, where all the good characters have culturally established “good” animal features and all the bad character have culturally established “bad” features. It’s cat ears, rabbit ears, sheep ears, monkey tails, dog tails, and beautifully changing skin color vs. scorpion tails, spiderwebs, bull horns, tiger ears, bat wings, and crocodile scales. Is it a perfect 1:1 divide? No, Ghira has panther claws and Fennec has fox ears, but there’s enough there for us to go, “RT tends to give the good guys cute features and/or features we associate with safe animals, whereas the bad guys tend to get ugly features and/or features we associate with dangerous animals.” I feel the same way here, that there’s a bit of a trend at play, with the caveat that there are more complications simply by virtue of these allusions being, well, complicated. But there’s enough there to make us stop and think, “What were RT’s intentions with this? If they just chose something based on the rule of cool, what might those inclinations tell us about gender norms in America?” Meaning, when someone goes, “Idk, we just thought it would be cool to change this up” there’s a lifetime of media consumption driving that choice. It’s not actually random, but based on whatever has been normalized  — unless you actively counteract that by thinking through what you want the change to do. 

Unconscious biases are always at work. When we analyze something like this it’s often not a matter of saying, “The author is [insert accusatory term here]” but rather just, “The author is falling into expectations, patterns, and normalized decisions based on the culture they’ve grown up in.” Which includes things like thinking, “Well, if this character is based on a male god, she must be crazy strong. If this character is based on a woman fighter, he’s probably more emotional.” Such biases may be driving a lot of decisions because, as said in the past, I really don’t think RT is putting much thought into these allusions, if any at this point. For me, Penny was proof of that  — the inability to see how following her allusion utterly destroyed her character growth  — but even if we don’t agree about Penny, what about Salem? Far from just using her name, this volume gave us a blatant reference to the events of Salem Trails in the 1690s. Namely, the burning of the witch. 

Except references like this can’t just look cool. This isn’t a video game Easter egg with no real connection to the story, it’s a cinematography/plot choice that carries meaning. So what is that meaning? Well, the thing about the women on trail at Salem is that they were innocent. This is what that reference says: “Hey, remember that real life event where women who weren’t witches were horrifically killed because others thought they were evil? None were actually burned, but culturally we tend to think they were. So that’s the image in our collective mind: innocent women on fire.” Except... Salem is actually a witch. Salem is evil. Salem is guilty. Or at least, the questions surrounding the extent of her guilt  — How much responsibility does she hold in comparison to the Gods? How much agency does she still have after the grimm pool?  — has not been acknowledged by the text. Yang just yelled at Salem for killing her mom and Oscar is about to blow her up. This is not a “Question Salem’s humanity” scene, it’s a “Kill the witch” scene... yet it uses an allusion that is contrary to what the moment is trying to achieve. So what are we supposed to take away from this? Do we adhere to the subtext and believe that Salem is innocent somehow, ignoring what the actual text says, or do we uphold the text and in doing so undermine the reliability of every other allusion in the show? If we can’t trust Salem’s, why would we trust, say, Penny’s? 

RWBY’s allusions are all over the place and yes, I think that lack of consideration extends to who they randomly decided to genderbend. There’s no acknowledgment of  — let alone engagement with  — how many of these characters and historical figures were trying to pass themselves off as another gender, nor does RWBY acknowledge how the need to do so feeds into our current and historic assumptions about gender as a whole. Why does the man dress as a woman? To keep himself safe and seen as a non-threat. Why does the woman dress as a man? To gain access to places previously barred from her and to gain the respect she otherwise wouldn’t be afforded. And, of course, in 2021 there’s the expectation that media will include trans characters, GNC characters, non-binary characters, cis characters uninterested in practicing traditional femininity/masculinity, etc. None of which RWBY tackles outside of May, a woman who references a systematic transphobia we otherwise never see in the show. May, as a minor character, is great and I am in all honesty thrilled that she exists in the RWBY canon. However, the rest of the show is built on an anime conception of gender  — combat skirts and bare midriffs in the snow  — while nevertheless engaging with the very complicated question of how you re-imagine canonically/historically gendered people. As a “girl power” show, RWBY has opened itself up to questions like, “Okay, it’s great that you made these four fairy tale girls kickass, but can we talk about making Joan of Arc into a bumbling guy whose presence as a blonde, blue-eyed, sword-wielding man taking up lots of important screen time has generated accusations about this being a male-centered show?” It’s not a “RWBY is horrible for doing this!” issue, but a “RWBY is deliberately playing with gender and marketing itself as a progressive show, so... let’s figure out what these individual choices are actually implying and whether or not we consider that progressive.” 

[hamliet]

So about your (very deep) RWBY analysis you said there were a few plausible ships in consequence, could you write on that too? I'm curious to see what those are if we follow that analysis

Sure! Firstly, thanks for reading that lol.

So I’ll just come out and say that I don’t fully trust the writers in this aspect, but the main ships that I see set up for in the alchemical sense are, of course, Yang/Blake and Ren/Nora, but also Ruby/Oscar and potentially Emerald/Mercury and Jaune/Weiss. (I will touch on Pyrrha/Jaune, but I don’t think Pyrrha is going to or should come back so... :( ) This all depends on how they stick to the alchemical structure, but just to reiterate: it’s extremely unlikely an alchemical story with a fairy tale basis is going to end with most characters single. It could and could do it well, but I’m skeptical lol.

Just to add a disclaimer: this is all theory and speculation; I honestly do not care about ships in this series besides Ren and Nora and hence am not emotionally invested. I could be wrong, and I’m fine with it. Please don’t come for me. 

Let’s begin by going over what romance is in alchemy. I talked about this in my previous meta, but the key principles of an alchemical work are the solar king and lunar queen. So who are they? What is their role in alchemy? 

Behold, the symbol for the philosopher’s stone:

Or more clearly: 

The large circle is the macrocosm, or universe as a whole. The triangle is body, mind, and heart (originally it was body, soul, and spirit). The square is the four classical elements (fire, air, earth, water). The smaller circle is the microcosm, wherein the two people inside are the Solar King and Lunar Queen, opposites conjoined in harmony. Together two conjoined opposites (yes it’s related to yin/yang, but eastern alchemy focuses more on the Elixir of Life rather than the actual stone and there are five elements, not four) create the philosopher’s stone. 

I talked about this in the past meta, but we know Ruby is a philosophical child because her father’s name literally means sun and her mother’s defining trait thus far is her silver eyes. She’s the stone itself, but also team RWBY is the stone, and other characters are on their own journeys to becoming philosopher’s stone. Things overlap. 

I didn’t come up with those designations of silver=moon on my own, though. Generally the two principles that are combined in a philosopher’s stone are marked by one (or more) of the following: 

Male: Sun, Sulphur, fire and air, hot and dry, Red, gold, heart.

Female: Moon, Mercury (or quicksilver), earth and water, cool and moist, White, silver, mind.

Don’t read too much into the genders, because that tends to matter the least and plays into antiquated views. Obviously. Characters rarely meet all the marks as well, but if marked with one should be paired with someone from the opposite marking. 

Let’s talk the obvious ones first: Ren and Nora, Blake and Yang, and Jaune and Pyrrha. 

Ren and Nora are pretty perfectly matched. Ren is mind, earth (“Lie” means “plum tree”) and water (“Ren” means “lotus,” a water-based flower). Nora is heart (her shirt, plus her brave qualities), fire (Thor and the association with electricity, plus “Nora” means “light”), and air (she flies, and a Valkyrie is a mythical flying creature in Norse mythology). 

Yang and Blake are also a good match. Yang is sun, gold (her name), fire and air (”Xiao long” means dragon), and heart. Blake is moon (Belladonna is a nightshade), earth and water (think of where her home village is), and mind. Blake was also a match for Sun Wukong, however, and this is why I’m skeptical about the writing of ships in this series--because they teased Sun/Blake for little reason (and I remember being confused). However, they did know that Blake’s partner needed to be her opposite, so Yang or Sun could work, and I think it’s clear that Blake/Yang is endgame and I like it. 

Pyrrha is red (her name), gold (her outfit), heart and mind, and her shield had a sun on it. 

Jaune was white (the dress he wore to the dance), body (differing from the norm, but fit because Pyrrha was both heart and mind; a body character tends to be either lusty or cowardly, the latter of which was Jaune in the first season), and moon. Look at Jaune’s shield, which so happens to match the silver/moon symbol in alchemy: 

However, Pyrrha has now died, and I’m still sad about it. However, also of note: fitting with the characters they are based off of, Team JNPR are have reversed gender dynamics from the alchemical norms. Again, I would bet that was done on purpose. 

Onto my speculations: 

For Ruby... well, I said she was the philosopher’s stone. 

In some ways, Ruby and Weiss are the philosopher’s stone together, but I think this is more platonic than romantic (it’s a lovely ship though and I see why people ship it). The reason for this is because while Ruby is Red, air, and Heart, and Weiss is White, water, and mind, Ruby and Weiss are both silver. They don’t compliment each other in this, which is why I don’t see it as a likely endgame romantic ship (but, like Frodo and Samwise Gamgee, I do see them as alchemical partners who help stop Salem together). 

But her romantic partner should be someone who is also both sun and moon, who is white where she is red, gold where she is silver, earth where she is air (she flies), mind where she is heart. Ideally they would also be a philosophical child. There’s one character I can think of who is marked as sun and moon, white, mind, and earth, and that’s Oscar Pine. See: Ozpin’s cane, which Oscar uses on his own quite a bit (that’s a sun and moon motif):

Additionally, in the scene where Ruby and Oscar meet for the first time, the paintings on the wall are a sun (fire) with distinctive air around it and a crescent moon over earth and water. 

If Weiss ends up in any ship, it will be with a person marked as heart, red, fire, and gold to her mind, white, water (ice), and silver. Neptune is water too, so this one is unlikely. Sun seems like a possibility on paper, but they haven’t interacted significantly at all (maybe they will in Vacuo?) But the most likely option to me is actually Jaune Arc--but a lot depends on the coming arcs (heh).

Wait, you said he was white! Key word: was. Jaune was never mind and will never be mind, but he has become brave as opposed to his initial fear, and I’d go so far as to say he’s heart now thanks to Pyrrha’s influence. Since Pyrrha’s death as well, he’s started incorporating gold and red into his outfit in a likely homage to Pyrrha. (It is actually possible for someone to shift markings; Daenerys in A Game of Thrones is white and moon, but becomes red and fire and all that by the end of the novel). 

Jaune’s arc of grief over Pyrrha is unlikely to end with him being forever alone, and while there are plenty of ways to show this that don’t involve him in a relationship with someone else, it’s the most obvious way to show this. It also fits from a narrative perspective that the only way Jaune could ever be with Weiss is through integrating with Pyrrha’s traits and qualities. We’ll see, though, because as of now he’s still marked as moon, and he’d need to become sun or fire. Cinder also directly compared Pyrrha and Weiss, and immediately after this Jaune unlocked part of his soul to heal Weiss, playing the role of the prince in Weiss’s fairy tale (Snow White). However, as Cinder’s own story shows us, not all princes in their retellings of these fairy tales are romantic. So this might not play out, but it has the set-up to do so. 

Lastly, Emerald and Mercury I think are alchemical partners regardless of whether or not they end up together romantically. Mercury’s name says it all, and Emerald’s eyes mark her as red. He’s mind, she’s heart. I’m adding this to the questionably romantic ones because I’m curious about the fact that Emerald and Mercury are now separated in the current season, just like all four of the above ships I mentioned. 

Also to keep in mind: sometimes writers say eff the tropes. See: Harry and Ginny, who are both red and air (but Ginny’s name also marks her as white, so).